LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

There is an expression: If you can name it, it's yours. For example, Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco, Mesa, Tucson, Sante Fe, Las Cruces, El Paso, San Antonio and Corpus Christi. The list is long in the southwestern U.S. because (surprise!) these are Spanish names of cities established by people of Spanish descent who were living in these parts long before Horace Greeley (1811-72) said, "Go West, young man."

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Posted Jul. 14, 2013 at 2:00 AM

Posted Jul. 14, 2013 at 2:00 AM

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There is an expression: If you can name it, it's yours. For example, Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco, Mesa, Tucson, Sante Fe, Las Cruces, El Paso, San Antonio and Corpus Christi. The list is long in the southwestern U.S. because (surprise!) these are Spanish names of cities established by people of Spanish descent who were living in these parts long before Horace Greeley (1811-72) said, "Go West, young man."

"Boehner can pass immigration reform" was the headline on the San Jose Mercury News editorial reprinted in the MT July 10, and, apparently, he has forgotten that we, the Americans who presently live north of the Rio Grande, are the immigrants. Oh my! I think this means that Speaker Boehner and his amigos in the House of Representatives need a reality check. — Raymond Steinbroner, Talent

Recently while taking my two granddaughters to the movies, the youngest one got carsick, which resulted in my pulling into the Medford Library parking lot and doing my best to clean her up. While I was doing this two wonderful things happened.

The first act of kindness was by a young woman who provided me with moistened wipes as I only had a water bottle to wash my granddaughter down with, and the second act of kindness was by a young woman who gave me new clothes to dress my granddaughter in.

Because of the kindness shown by these two women (who I can't identify), we were able to continue our way to the movies. It was a wonderful experience and my granddaughters (ages 6 and 4) had the opportunity to witness how caring and kind people can be. A huge thank-you to the two angels that came to our rescue! — Barbara Christensen, Ashland

By this time, most everybody realizes that the Muslim world, at least in the Middle East, is in great turmoil; i.e., Egypt, Syria, Turkey, Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran, Libya, etc. The causes would seem to be (1) a long-standing conflict between the Sunni and Shia sects; (2) very high unemployment with bad economic conditions; (3) the pervasiveness of the internet, thus challenging traditional Islamic culture; (4) strong negative feelings among Muslims toward Israel.

None of those problems would seem to be amenable to successful American intervention. Therefore, we should remain aloof, allowing these issues to be resolved by the respective nations, except for humanitarian aid where feasible. Our stake in the Middle East is no longer dominated by oil, as we get less than 15 percent from that region, in declining amounts every year. — E.A. (Don) Seebart, Ashland

Mr. Smith avails the "mathematics of probability" to refute the integrated principle of natural selection/genetic mutation vis-à-vis God and creationism.

First, what are the odds that Earth is at just the appropriate distance from the sun for it to furnish us with both moderate climate and sustainable energy that facilitates life on our planet?

Second, what are the odds that the very diameter of the moon allows for a lunar disk that almost wholly occludes the shining sun during a solar eclipse though our massive star is approximately 93 million miles away?

Third, what are the odds that the elegant mathematical concept of a simple ellipse clarifies, with near-perfect accuracy, the complexity of celestial mechanics among all the various, accelerating bodies of gravitational mass in the universe?

Mr. Smith posits the "odds against us evolving out of the primordial ooze because of millions of favorable mutations." Yet life has advanced throughout the earth's eons of existence exactly because of the totality of trillions of genetic mutations, which include those many billions of unsuccessful mutations that ceased to exist due to the timeless winnowing process of natural selection. Such are the elaborate dynamics of evolution. — Dohn Addleman, Medford